HAS TO STOP

Funhouse guy says he won’t post Francesa clips

For years, an anonymous Twitter user now going by @BackAftaThis has been doing the media’s dirty work: recording and editing the best of Mike Francesa. On Thursday, Francesa demanded that he stop, and the man says he will. The Daily News caught up with the man behind the account — also known as Funhouse — on Friday.

The below interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

Daily News: What exactly happened here with the takedown?

Funhouse: It took me by surprise, honestly. Out of the blue (Thursday), he started reading a legal disclaimer about how copyright infringement of his show will no longer be tolerated. Obviously, it was a result of the video I posted on Wednesday where he hammered the president. It ended up on every major political website, it was retweeted by CNN anchors, and the clip was played on MSNBC and CNBC, among others. I think it has close to three million views as I type this. And that’s just the clip itself, not counting TV viewers.

So I’m sure Mike and Entercom weren’t pleased that the clip originated from my account. Perhaps if they had their own social media team to do things like this, they would have gotten it out there first. But Mike’s show is terribly marketed. I always joke that I’m the only person listening to the 5 p.m. - 6 p.m. portion of this show on Radio.com… Other than the clips I post, nobody EVER mentions anything about his show.

Mike just did me a favor. His show has been so dreadful for the better part of 18 months. It was nearly impossible to listen to. But I built my Twitter following by posting clips of Mike; it’s what everyone expected, so I did it. It became a chore. Mike has no energy anymore, and he’s become a punchline. People are laughing at him, and even though he’s not my favorite person in the world, it’s sad to see where this has gone. Mike was a titan in the industry, a pioneer.

Now he exists just to be mocked. Had he stayed retired when he originally departed in December of 2017, his legacy would look much better than it does right now. He’s gotten dunked on the past two years, by everyone. Even the Michael Kay Show, which he used to trounce in the ratings, handed him a humiliating loss in his final book in afternoon drive. This is all my long-winded way of saying, I’M FINE WITH THIS! Mike gave me an out. I can now stop posting his clips, guilt-free… because that’s the way he wants it. Done. Thanks for the memories.

DN: How was the 2017 shutdown resolved? Do you think this takedown could end similarly?

FH: Funny thing about that. WFAN didn’t get my old account suspended; everyone thinks that. Major League Baseball did. But I didn’t realize it for a couple of weeks. Even after I resurfaced with this new account, I thought WFAN was responsible. Turns out I missed some emails from Twitter with warnings about posting MLB content. I never saw them until it was too late.

If I recall correctly, I posted a string of embarrassing blown radio calls by Yankee announcer John Sterling. Evidently, they’ll cut you some slack if you portray the game in a positive light, but they didn’t care too much for that, I guess.

DN: Have you ever thought about training your oversight-type eye on more powerful public figures who maybe aren’t being tracked closely enough?

FH: If you are referring to politicians, NO! I learned that lesson. Whenever you post something political, half of your followers will automatically hate it. I could post the most inoffensive clip from CNN, and people will perceive it as a shot at the president. I’m really only interested in tracking sports-talk hosts. It makes the work day fly by, which is the best part.

DN: You said that Francesa issued the takedown because he’s mad Tuesday’s Trump rant went viral. I’m confused by that, can you explain?

FH: Sure. Remember when I said earlier that I am the only one listening to Mike from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Radio.com? He’s well aware of that also. That’s his safe space. He touches on topics that he would be unlikely to mention from 6-6:30 on WFAN, which reaches far more listeners. I honestly think he got caught up in the moment. He got progressively angrier, and it was actually a terrific, heartfelt speech. People saw that. And they loved it. That’s why it went viral.

But I also think he felt free to speak his mind on a controversial subject, because there simply aren’t many listeners on Radio.com. This entire situation, in my opinion, boils down to Mike being angry that his longtime acquaintance, Donald Trump, almost certainly heard Mike “turn against him.” I listened to him every day, and I can never recall that happening before. The next day, Mike was quick to tell a reporter that he still supports Trump and promised to vote for him again. All of this is my opinion, of course.

DN: Do you think he farted that fateful day?

FH: Gun to my head? 70/30 yes.